Protesting Texans block TransCanada pipeline equipment

Published 4:43 pm, Wednesday, September 5, 2012

As TransCanada gave Nebraska regulators a new proposed route for its Keystone XL pipeline through that state, protesters on Wednesday blocked equipment being used on the Texas leg of the project.

The demonstrators in the northeast Texas town of Saltillo were opposing construction that began last month on the stretch of the pipeline that will connect the oil hub of Cushing, Okla., with the Texas Gulf Coast. The company won final Army Corps of Engineers permits for the southern project in late July.

A stretch of pipeline that would connect oil sand fields in the Canadian province of Alberta with Steele City, Neb., requires separate federal approval. It would link up with existing pipeline from Steele City to Cushing.

On Wednesday TransCanada gave Nebraska regulators a new map for routing the pipeline through the state to avoid the Sand Hills region and other areas with sandy, erodible soils. The latest map refines an existing alternative route around the Sand Hills following public meetings and comments

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said in a release that the new route "was developed based on extensive feedback from Nebraskans and reflects our shared desire to minimize the disturbance of land and sensitive resources in the state."

The Obama administration rejected a cross-border permit for that northern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline earlier this year. The State Department - involved because the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canada border - said the project needed more study, including an environmental analysis of the proposed route through ecologically sensitive areas of Nebraska.

Opponents say the pipeline would expand the marketplace for oil sands crude that produces more greenhouse gas emissions from production to combustion than alternatives because of the energy-intensive techniques used to harvest it.

Companies typically extract the tar-like hydrocarbon bitumen from Canada's oil sands by open-pit mining or by injecting steam underground to liquefy the material.

The protests in Texas were the latest effort to halt work on the project by blocking bulldozers and other equipment.

Three protesters in Saltillo locked themselves to feller buncher machines used to clear trees.

One of the three, Houstonian Sarah Reid, said she was fighting on behalf of East Texas landowners "who have been taken advantage of by TransCanada."

Hopkins County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene mid-morning, and left before noon with a warning to "make sure everyone's safe," according to activist group Tar Sands Blockade. The group said protesters left the site about 1 p.m., but it vowed that protests will continue.